Shadow Knight
by Legends di Angelo
Summary: To reunit with his lost friend and his home, Link has to complete a task near impossible
1. The goddesses's task

The Lost woods was a place of never ending trees and darkness. Only the children of Kokiri, a race of Hylians who never grew up and remained children for their entire lives, could navigate through the woods safely thanks to their fairies that could lead them through the darkness. Certain points in the forest were lit, but it was rare to ever find them. If anyone who didn't have a fairy wandered into the darkness of the woods they would find themselves lost, hence the name of the woods, to never be seen again. Rumors spread by the children of the forest say that the lost souls would lose their flesh, their bodys becoming walking bones, and lose all hope a humanity becoming monsters and to spend all eternity walking around the woods.

In these woods, riding on the back of horse, was a young lad of 15 years old. For years he had gone through the woods in search of his friend and his way back home. After the events of his childhood he had beaten a evil king he had been declared a hero at the young age of 10. But he had lost his best friend before he had been declared a hero. After searching every crack of Hyrule his last option was to travel into the Lost Woods, without a fairy. His journey had been fruitless as he searched for years in the woods and had run into some trouble and, just to some it up, had to stop the moon from crashing down onto the world. Then after that he had returned his search. Other than a few stops at towns that he had randomly found, he spent most of his time in the woods in search of his friend. But despite the stories that he was told about the woods, he was still very much a Hylian and a living one at that. Though the woods did sap his strength when he traveled through the woods. But he'd play a song on his ocarina, a gift from the Princess of Hyrule for saving her kingdom, and all his fatigue would disappear. Also every time he'd leave the woods he'd feel better.

"Another day of searching." The lad, now a teen 15 years old, said to his horse as he patted her mane, "Who knows maybe today is the day that we'll find her."

Everyday the boy said the same sentence to the horse. She was his only friend at this point. The only thing that drew breath in the middle of the vast nothingness of trees and shrubs. Not even bugs seemed to dwell this deep in the forest, and he could confirm that it was deep because when ever he got close to a town bugs, whether it be flies, mosquitoes, or beetles.

"Hey do you remember how long it's been since we've last been to a town?" He asked, "I think it's been a week, but we've only eaten enough for two days, or at least I have."

Since the forest was covered in shadows it was hard to keep track of time. One time he had thought he had been in the woods for a month and ended up going around in a circle, returning to the previous town, to learn he had only been there for only a week.

"Either way," He said, fiddling with the metal shoulder pad on his right shoulder, "I think we should try to find a place with Hylians."

That earned a scoff and a whining neigh from the horse

"Hey, I'm not saying that talking to you isn't good." He said petting her mane, "But I need to talk to someone who speaks my language sometimes so I don't go insane. If that hasn't already happened. I have been traveling in the woods for about five years talking to a horse."

With another scoff Epona stopped

"Aw don't tell me I've insulted you!" He said, hoping off her saddle and stretching, "You and I need a break. I'll be over here doing some drills when you're ready to apologize."

The horse whipped her tail as she walked in the opposite direction.

"I'm gonna end up apologizing. Again!" He huffed walking over to a tree and drawing his sword and chopping at the branches and vines off. He tied the branches together with the vines into the shape of men before unstrapping his shoulder pad and taking his chainmail and green tunic, leaving him in a black shirt and his white leggings.

"All right Ganon!" He said, his hand on the handle of sword, "It's time for you to meet your doom!"

He had rehearsed that line over over and over again. Back when he was younger, well technically older or when he was older during a younger time, he had been really quiet and when his time to say the phrase he couldn't find them. But being alone in the wood for all that time gave him the chance to find those words, even if it really didn't matter now that was all over. But that didn't really matter to him. He said the same line to his wooden enemy everyday until he couldn't.

Smiling, Link pulled his sword out, a piece of wood tied to a handle. He had a real blade, but he had no reason to use it against a few branches tied together. He made the wooden sword so his 'opponent' wouldn't be cut into a million pieces.

After a hour of jumping around the dummy, hitting it, and yelling random gibberish at it, Link jumped in the air and swung his leg down at the dummy, breaking it into multiple piece and huffed satisfied.

As he put his chainmail back on, he heard a scoff from beside him. Looking over he saw the red coated horse.

"I suppose you're here to apologize." He said, slipping his head through the tunic. That earned a warm wet snort right on the back of his head before Epona bit the back of his tunic and dragging him along the forest floor, "Epona have you lost your mind? What are you doing?"

Despite how hard he tried, squirming, twisting and turning, even yelling at the horse, Epona drug him across the forest floor, getting his white leggings stained brown with dirt. The longer he got drug around, the sound of music could be heard. At first, he thought he was just hearing things and stuck his finger in his pointed ear and tried to clean it out. But he wasn't hearing things, the music was real and Epona seemed to be dragging him towards it.

Soon Epona stopped and let Link go in a lighted area. The sound of the music was right behind him.

"Can I turn around or do you need my horse to do that as well?" He asked the people. He figured it was more than one person since he heard a harp, flute, and violin, it was either three people or some enchanter.

"You may turn to us." A female voice said as the music stopped playing, and Link got up and turned to see three gorgeous women.

"Hello hero of Hyrule." A lady with blue hair, falling to her shoulders, said. She held a silver flute in her hand. Her blue dress, covered in sapphires, glitter in the light. She sat in the middle of two other ladys and she looked to be the youngest, maybe around Links age.

"H-hi." He said blushing.

She giggled at his blushing which made his blush even harder.

"Don't do that Nayru." The lady next to her, who had long red hair tied back and a red dress with rubies on it.

"Aw….." Nayru whined, "Why not Din? He is the one saved Hyrule and that other land from being destroyed."

"That still doesn't make him a god." The older lady sighed, "Anyways, Hero of Hyrule. You have seem to have met a terrible fate."

That statement made Link sit straight up. The last person who told him that was a real creep and ended up being a main source of his problem.

"Din that's not your line." The oldest of the three, her hair flowing freely past her shoulders and emeralds decorating her green dress, "That was met for the mask salesman."

"Oh right!" She said hitting her forehead, "How about, you've seemed to of lost your way."

"Yeah that'll work." The oldest said, "Ok from the top now."

They all took a deep breath in and out.

"Welcome Hero of Hyrule." Nayru said

"You have seemed to of lost your way." Din said

"And a friend." Farore, at least that's what Link guessed her name was since these ladys seemed to be going with the goddess' names.

"You have fought and saved your homeland." Din said, "And a land totally unknown to you, but was still created by us nonetheless."

"For your actions," Nayru said, "You should be rewarded."

Link looked at the dumbfounded. He thought these three were just impersonating the goddess's, but how would they know about him defeating Ganon and about stopping Majora and stopping the moon from crashing onto the earth.

"We have decided that you can return to your homeland and be reunited with your friend." Farore said.

"T-thank you my goddess's!" Link cried, falling to his knees, which made Nayru giggle

"Well you have to pass a test first." She said.

"What kind of test?" He asked, "Fight a dragon? Find a rare gem? Whatever it is I'll complete it!"

"It's not like that." Din said, as each of them waved their hands and the room filled with a bright white light, blinding Link his vision returned he saw a casket made of glass and he could see a child in it. A child that looked like him but with black hair and tunic. Link recognized him as the evil version of himself.

"A true hero can make even the purest evil see the light." Din said, "Take this spawn of Ganon and change him into a honorable knight of Hyrule."  
"If you can achieve this task." Farore said, "You will be reunited with you homeland and friend."  
Link, switched from being over excited and thrilled, Looked at the casket unsure of the task.  
"We wish you the best of luck Hero of Hyrule." All three of them said before vanishing.

As the disappeared, the glass on the cassette disappeared.

"Ah!" The young clone of Link yawned and stretched, "That was one heck of a nap!"

Link watched him unsure if he should say anything or not.

"What are you looking at?" Shadow Link asked, glaring at Link. Link knew this was going to be even harder than fighting Ganon or stopping a moon.


	2. A little growth

"Do those push ups!" Link demanded, his boot on the black tunic of the ten year old clone. At first, when Shadow Link gave him tude with the 'What are you looking at?', Link tried to extend a peaceful hand, but it all really went down hill and fast. From Epona being untied, thankfully she didn't run away and ended up telling on Shadow Link, to him throwing all Link's stuff into the water.

At that current time Link had him doing push-ups, as Epona walked around in a pond washing off a stain of different berries. Link, who had slept in late from making sure his evil version didn't try anything funny over night, woke up to the sound of Epona crying and when he cheeked to see what was on he saw little Link tossing what was mashed balls of their food at the horse.

"How...Many...Do...I...Have...To...Do…?" He asked, every time he feel down he spat a word out.

"Until Epona is clean or you're arms fall off." Link snapped. Epona, other than the ocarina, was the only thing to remind him of his homeland. So when he seen her covered in mashed food he was done playing. "I can't believe my only ticket home is to train this…. this…. Thing!" He snapped, not caring who heard it. It's not like the thing at his feet had any actual feelings. He glared down at the black haired imp as he bared his foot down on him, watching him do ten more push ups as Epona walked beside him.

"You think he's had enough?" He asked Epona, and she nuzzled his head, "Hey why are you taking his side? He's the one who threw all the food- Our food! At you!"

She snorted and stomped at Link.

"Whatever." He snapped, letting his foot up, "You're free to go."

Shadow Link didn't wait for his bigger light self to change his mind and darted off and ran to the the nearest before turning around to face Link, glaring at him with his ruby red eyes.

"Nuh…!" He taunted at the two, sticking his tongue out and pulling his right eyelid down, then running off into the woods. Running past the seemingly never ending stretch of trees. As he ran he grinned his teeth ane he bared them. His vision getting blurry as tears flowed down his cheek and flying away from his body, sparkling in the air before falling to the green forest floor, greedily drink them.

"It's not fair!" He finally stopped and fell to the ground. Tears continued to stream off his face as he dug into the ground, digging up the rich black soil. This whole thing to him was just stupid. He spent his entire life in his in darkness with the only goal of taking down Link. Now he was stuck as a kid being trained by the man he was suppose to enemies with. Ganon's voice, that whispered in his ears the action to make fueling him to continue fighting harder. But now his head was empty, filled with his own thoughts. It was to quiet!

"Ah!" He cried as he broke into another sprint, but only going a few feet before tripping on a root, and went flying into the air and, with his arms flapping like a cucos, crashing to the ground, sliding a little and filling his mouth with grass and dirt.

"This is all you fault!" He spat, figuratively and literally with dirt, at the sky. He imagined all three of the golden goddesses standing up, where ever it is they were, laughing at him. The once powerful warrior of Ganon reduced to nothing but a dirt eating munchkin. "Why did you do this?!" He demand to know falling to the ground punching it. It's like his light version said, he was an it a imp. There was no way something born in darkness could ever be good.

As he laid on the ground, he felt his head grow warm, like someone was touching it. He looked up and was only blinded by a shining a bright light, blinding him, making him cover his face with his sleeve. Once the light died down, Shadow Link lowered his sleeve, and in front of him was a flower. Unrooted by his fall he guess. He stared at it with his ruby red eyes for a second, looking at its roots sticking out the clump of dirt, that came out with it. It's pale white petals facing up at him. He looked at it, tilting his head sideways, and his left pointed ear flicking forwards and back. Squinting at it, he had no idea why he found it so interesting. Actually, the more he thought about it, he kinda had this bad feeling in him. It felt like a needle was poking him in the chest.

"W-what?" He asked himself as he picked it up, "Y-you didn't deserve it. You were just doing what flowers do, and I uprooted you."

As if to answer, one of the petals fell and started to float to the ground.

"No!" He said grabbing it, "I'm sorry!" He yelled as he tried to put the pedal back on the flower but it just fell to the ground every time. He looked around and seen the huge divot in the ground, that his face had made, and put the flower into it and used his hands to surround the plant with the black dirt.

"Hopefully you'll get better." He said holding onto the petal.

"You ok?" Someone asked, sending a shiver from the top of his head down to the tips of his toe. He jumped up and turned around to face whoever it was that dared to sneak up behind him. "Chill!" Link said, holding his hands up in peace, "I saw you fall to the ground and Epona told me to check on you."

Shadow Link puffed out his cheeks out, crossed his, and turned his hand, "I'm sure it must've killed you to follow me through the woods so you could talk to some imp."

Link felt like got punched in the gut as those words were spat back at him

"I'm sorry for calling you that." He sighed rolling his eyes, "But you've proven you're not a monster. You've proven that today."

Shadow Link's ears flicked in annoyance being called 'not a monster'. "How have I 'proven that'?"

"Well, for starters you were crying." He started, "I've been fighting monsters for a while and I've never seen one cry."

Shadow Link's cheeks flashed red, "I was not crying!"

"We'll you were doing something that was making water come out of your eyes." Link said, "And over a flower. I've never seen a monster do that either."

Ignoring his olderself, he looked down at the flower. The pin poking him feeling went away and a warm feeling spread across his chest as he saw the flower looking up at him.

"I-I'm sorry." He said again. But this time at Link, "I shouldn't of thrown that food at Epona, and for using all our food."

"Oh!" Link said, not expecting it. He stared down at his mini self, who was looking down at the ground, and sighed before ruffling his hair, "It's alright Shady."

"Shady?" He asked looking up at him.

"Yeah." Link chuckled, "I figured if we're going to be stuck with one another we can't be call each other Link. Especially when we go into towns, which will be soon since we need more food."

"Was the Epona's idea?" Shady asked

"Hey! I can have ideas to!" The hero huffed, "But yell it was."

Shady chuckled at that, "Shady…." He said, liking the sound of it, "So you chased after me to tell me that?"

Link raised his eye confused, "Chased after you?"

"Yeah! I ran away trying to get away."

"Well then you ran in a circle." He said moving out of the way. Shady looked and saw the blue lake, that sparkled as the sun shined on it, that they had made camp by earlier. Even the tents that they slept in were still up, and the cooking pot still had a fire under it. Epona was even staring at them as she stood behind a tree.

"We better get back before she drags us back." Link sighed looking down at Shady and frowning.

"What?" The young boy asked.

"Have you always had green eyes?" He asked. He could've sworn that they were red.

"No." He said confused walking over to the lake. And his eyes were green, green and shiny like emeralds. He reached his hand towards the reflection, but before he could touch it he felt something grab the bottom of his tunic and start to drag him, his stomach rubbing against the dirt.

"Ah!" Shady cried, looking behind him to who was pulling him and was meat with the stern gaze of Epona, "Epona let me go!"


End file.
